1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for detecting an abnormal situation, and specifically, a method and an apparatus for detecting an abnormal situation based on whether a detected target holds an object.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of the technology and the improvement of the safety awareness of the people, a monitoring system is installed in more and more public places (such as public areas of stations, airports, banks, and office buildings). It is very important for establishment of an effective monitoring system to discover and recognize an abnormal situation existing in these public places. By recognizing an abnormal situation, a potential safety risk in a public place can be detected, and damage to the people and facilities can be avoided by taking a rapid response to the potential safety risk.
A method for determining an abnormal situation by recognizing an image and determining a risk of an object based on a shape of the object which appears in an image obtained by a camera of a monitoring system is provided. However, the determination result is easily influenced by factors such as change of a viewing angle, or an obstacle; thus, the ability of the method for distinguishing the risk is not enough, and it is often difficult to obtain a representative image of the object.
Moreover, a method for determining an abnormal situation by determining a risk of an object by infrared, tomography or microwave images using a detection apparatus other than a camera usually used in a monitoring system is provided. However, such a detection apparatus has a high cost, and cooperation of the people is usually necessary, and for example, it is often necessary for a person who holds an object to pass through a specified scanning apparatus; even though data obtained by the detection apparatus can stably indicate characteristic information of the object. As a result, it is usually difficult to realize such a method in public places.